Judith McNaught (82 page)

Zack leaned back and closed his eyes, caught between torment and tenderness over what he had seen

and read. He saw her agonized face when he was being put into chains and he heard her soft voice during their only phone call:
"I love you so much… I
can't stop loving you… Save your prayers for
later, darling. You're going to wear your knees out
when I get there as it is,
…
praying I let you
get some sleep at night, praying I stop giving you
babies
…" He had figured out weeks ago that she'd lied about being pregnant, but he'd thought it was to force him into her trap.

Everything else had been the truth…

Julie in Colorado, tripping him in the snow … lying in his arms at night, giving herself to him with an unselfish ardor that had driven him crazy with desire and the need to please her as she pleased him …

Julie with her glowing eyes, musical laughter, her prim vocabulary, and jaunty smile.

He could still feel her lying in his arms that last night, her fingers spreading over his heart when she told

him she loved him … still see her eyes darken with sympathy when he told her that stupid story about a teacher refusing to dance with him…
"I would never
have turned you down, Zack."
… He remembered the way her entire face had lit up when she talked about watching grown women learn to read…

"Oh, Zack…
It's like holding a miracle in your
hand!"

If she hadn't conceived that insane idea of visiting his treacherous grandmother, Zack realized she probably wouldn't have broken under the pressure of Tony Austin's death. Richardson had said she'd handled the first blow without losing her resolve.

She'd broken under the second one.

She had been real. And she had been his. She had loved him when he had nothing to offer her except a life in hiding with a fugitive. She had clutched that wedding ring to her chest and wept as if her heart was

breaking…

She had done and been all those things. It hit him suddenly that Richardson had not said Julie was still in

love with him, but only that she was guilt-stricken now over Mexico City. Other things began to occur to

him, too: Richardson had apparently spent enough time with her in the past three months to fall in love with her. She had only known Zack for a week, and he, on the other hand, had turned her life into a living

hell. Paralyzed with a mixture of urgency and fear, Zack slowly stood up.

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Matt and Meredith exchanged smiles profound pleasure as Zack strode into the living room carrying a

suitcase. Leaning back against the sofa, Matt stretched his legs out and studied the blue suit Zack was

wearing with a knowing grin. "No one wears a suit to a California party, Zack. It just isn't done."

"I forgot about the damned party," he said, glowering out the window at his own guests. "Stand in for

me, will you? Tell them something urgent came up.

Can I borrow your pilot?" he added, absently putting his suitcase down and tying his tie.

"Just my pilot?" Matt said, glancing up at Meredith, who'd perched on the arm of the sofa and laid her hand on his shoulder. "Not my plane?"

Zack turned aside as his housekeeper rushed in to give him two briefcases she'd packed at his instructions. "Your plane
and
your pilot," he said impatiently.

"That depends on where you plan to go."

Satisfied that he had everything he needed for the next few days, Zack finally turned his full attention on

his friend. "Where the hell do you think I'm going?"

"How should I know. If it's Keaton, Texas, don't you think you should call Julie first?"

"No, I don't know how she'll react. I don't want her taking off somewhere to avoid me. If I fly commercial, it will take me hours longer to get there."

"What's the rush? You've let her wait for six weeks already while Richardson's been there holding her hand, no doubt, giving her his broad shoulder to cry on. Furthermore, private planes are expensive toys—"

"I don't have time for this b—" Zack cut off the curse word on Meredith's behalf, started forward to kiss

her good-bye, then he stopped as Joe O'Hara said from the doorway behind him. "I've got the car out in

front, ready to go, Matt. And I talked to Steve on the car phone. He says the plane's fueled and ready to fly. Zack, when are you going to be ready to leave?"

"I think," Matt joked dryly, "he's ready now."

Giving Matt a disgusted look, Zack pulled Meredith into his arms. "Thank you," he said with quiet sincerity.

"You're welcome," she replied, beaming at him.

"Give Julie my love."

"Give her my sincerest apology," Matt said, standing up and sobering as he held out his hand to shake Zack's. "Good luck."

They watched him stride swiftly out the door, then Meredith looked up at Matt and her smile wobbled as she said, "That man loves her so much that he doesn't care that many people will think he's a fool for

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wanting her after what she did to him in Mexico City. All that matters to him is that she loves him."

"I know," Matt replied somberly, gazing into her misty eyes. "I recognize the feeling."

"
H
ey, Herman, can you pick up some guy who's landin' at the airstrip in twenty minutes?" The squawk

of the walkie-talkie was scarcely noticed in the noisy high school gymnasium where 175 Keaton citizens were gathered for the dress rehearsal of the bicentennial celebration pageant that was to take place

tomorrow after the parade. Shoving the saber that hung from the waist of his general's uniform aside, Herman Henkleman groped for the walkie-talkie beneath it and held it to his mouth. "Sure thing, Billy.

Julie Mathison just said I've already got my part down great."

Feeling very grand in his uniform, Herman looked around for Julie, who was in charge of the entire pageant, and spotted her standing off to the sidelines beside her brother and sister-in-law, watching the rehearsal taking place on stage. "Howdy, Ted—

Katherine," he said as he wended his way through the

crowd to her side. "'Scuse me, Julie," he added, and when she looked up and smiled at him, he

explained, "Billy Bradson has started lettin' me drive the taxi on weekends to earn some extra money. I gotta go make a pickup for him at the airstrip. Some guy's landin' in a plane out there in a few minutes."

"Go right ahead," Julie said, oblivious to the swift, questioning look that Katherine gave Ted. "We're almost finished here, and besides, you don't need any more rehearsal."

"I know," he said proudly. "I got that part about

'Charge, here come's the enemy' down great.'"

She laughed. "Yes, you certainly do!"

He hesitated, glancing across the room at Flossie Eldridge, then he leaned lower. "If Flossie asks where

I am, you could probably tell her I had something real important to do."

Julie had deliberately given him a part in the pageant that required him to be close to the elderly twin, who still blushed like a schoolgirl whenever he spoke to her. "Why don't you tell her yourself," she whispered. "She's looking right at you."

Herman gathered up his courage, and as he headed for the auditorium doors, he stopped in front of Flossie and Ada Eldridge, who were dressed in matching ball gowns, their hair styled into identical masses of ringlets. "I gotta make a run to the airstrip for Billy Bradson," he told Flossie. "I'm helpin' him out on weekends, now, besides doing my electrical work."

"Be careful, Herman," she said shyly.

"Don't blow up his car," Ada said scornfully.

Herman felt his collar turn hot. He stepped away, then stepped back, glowering. "Ada," he said, confronting the woman for the first time in decades.

"You are a mean-hearted, spiteful, bloodless woman, and you always have been! I told you that years ago, and it's still true."

"And you," she retorted, turning red, "are a useless good-for-nothing."

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He slapped his general's hat on his head and put his hands on his hips, his expression ominous. "That's not what you used to think when you were a girl, chasin' after me, tryin' to turn my head from Flossie!"

He walked out, leaving Flossie gaping at her angry twin with a look of hurt and dawning understanding.

Katherine waited until Julie walked up onto the stage to round up the children for their own rehearsal, then she squeezed Ted's hand tightly, her face a mask of hope and tension. "Ted, do you think it's Benedict landing at the airstrip?"

He shook his head. "Not a chance. They said on the news last night that he's giving a weekend party at his house, remember?"

Her face fell and he patted her hand. "It's probably Larraby coming in from Dallas to make his monthly inspection of that factory he's building over in Lynchville."

* * *

Evidently, they don't light this sidewalk up at night.

By the way, your taxi's waiting down there."

Without taking his gaze from the videotapes of Julie he'd brought with him to watch on the plane, Zack buckled his seat belt. A few minutes later, however, he looked up with a startled frown as the pilot slammed on the brakes at the moment of touchdown and the sleek plane bucked down the runway, brakes screaming, finally coming to a teeth-jarring stop only a few feet from the end of it.

"Mr. Farrell's going to need new brakes after two landings on this strip." the pilot said, sounding a little

shaken and very relieved. "What's the plan for tonight, Mr. Benedict? Should I check into a motel for the

night or head back to the West Coast?"

Zack reached over to the intercom button on the console between the two sofas, then he hesitated and faced what he had tried to ignore all the way here: He did not have the slightest idea whether Julie now hated him more than she'd loved him. He didn't know what sort of reception he was going to get from her

or how much time it was going to take to convince her to come back to California with him or if he could

ever convince her to do that. Pressing the button, he said belatedly, "Check into a motel for the night, Steve. I'll send the cab back here for you."

The pilot was still shutting down the engines when Zack walked swiftly down the steps. The taxi driver was standing at attention beside the open door of his cab wearing the most ludicrously unauthentic Civil War uniform Zack had ever seen, assuming that's what it was supposed to be. "Do you know where Julie

Mathison lives?" he asked him as he slid into the back seat and put his briefcase down. "If not, I need to

find a phone book. I forgot to bring her address."

"Of course I know where she lives," the driver said, his eyes narrowing on Zack's face, his expression turning ferocious as he recognized it. He got into the front seat and slammed the door with unnecessary force. "Your name Benedict?" he demanded several minutes later as they drove past the elementary school and into a quaint downtown district set around a courthouse, with shops and restaurants surrounding the square.

Zack was busy looking around at the town where Julie had grown up. "Yes."

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A half mile from the downtown district, the cab pulled to a stop in front of a neat one-story house with

an immaculate lawn and big shade trees, and Zack felt his heart began to beat in nervous anticipation as he dug in his pocket for money. "How much do I owe you?"

"Fifty bucks."

"You're kidding."

"For anyone else, the ride costs five bucks. For a skunk like you, it costs fifty bucks. Now, if you want me to take you to where Julie really is, instead of leaving you here, where she ain't, it'll cost you seventy-five."

Torn between anger, surprise, and tension, Zack ignored the aspersion cast on his character and sat back. "Where is she?"

"At the high school where she's handlin' the rehearsal for the pageant."

Zack remembered passing the high school with its crowded parking lot. He hesitated, desperate to see her, to set things straight, to hold her in his arms if she'd let him. His voice tinged with sarcasm, he said,

"Do you also happen to know how long she'll be there?"

"It could go on all night," Herman lied out of sheer spite.

"In that case, take me there."

The driver jerked his head in a nod and pulled away from the curb. "I don't see why you're in such a hurry to see her, now," he said, glaring at Zack in the rearview mirror. "You left her here all this time to face the reporters and the cops all by herself after you snatched her and took her to Colorado. When you got out of prison, you didn't come to see her either. You've been too busy with your fancy women and your parties to bother with a sweet girl like Julie, who's never hurt anybody in her whole life!

You've

shamed her in front of the whole world, in front of this whole town! People outside of Keaton hate her because she did the right thing in Mexico, only it turned out to be the wrong thing. I hope," he finished vengefully as they pulled up in front of the doors to the high school, "she pokes you in the eye when she sees you! If I were her daddy, I'd get out my shotgun and come lookin' for you, soon as I heard you're in town! I hope he does."

"You'll probably get both your wishes," Zack said quietly, pulling a hundred-dollar bill out of his pocket

and handing it to him. "Go back to the airport and get my pilot. He's not a skunk, so another twenty-five

dollars should cover your trip."

Something in his voice made Herman hesitate and turn around in his seat. "Are you plannin' to finally make it up with her? Is that why you're here?"

"I'm going to try."

The hostility on his face died. "Your pilot's gonna have to wait a few minutes. This, I want to see.